Turning data insights into SEO strategies

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Apr 29, 2022 / by
Turning data insights into SEO strategies

SEO is all about data and data is the currency of the 21st century. But data alone is worth nothing, it’s all about what you do with it. This is particularly true in marketing, where data can completely transform your SEO strategies. But are you extracting enough value from your data? And what could you be doing differently?

Google Analytics and Data Studio, when used together, are incredibly powerful tools that allow you to pull in data and mine the kind of insights from it that can build the foundation of your SEO strategies. Here, in a nutshell, is how it all works.

Sort through the data

The first step in transforming your data into a workable strategy is to somehow synthesise it into a workable dashboard. This is where you’ll gather all of your important KPIs into one page that provides quick, bitesize insights including rank traffic, organic traffic, conversions, backlinks and more. Your dashboard is how you understand your audience and should be the foundation upon which all future SEO decisions are made.

Google Data Studio is, quite comfortably, the most popular tool when it comes to collecting data from various sources (including Google Analytics, of course) and integrating it into one place. That place is your dashboard. But what kind of dashboard you build is going to depend on your business and your audience.

Create a dashboard focused on your audience

A good dashboard is absolutely key and will be built from a plethora of data from many different sources. Start by differentiating your audience – what do they want and how can you get the most value from them? High-quality data is a good start but if you can’t view that data in a context that makes sense it might as well be meaningless.

A dashboard should contain more data than just location, behaviour and device, it should contain enough information to create a bespoke experience and content that your target audience will read and connect with. A user-centric dashboard with enough relevant information can be used to upsell, cross-sell and build relationships with existing customers. Because retention is always more profitable than acquisition.

The final step

Using your dashboard and all the data is great but it’s only a synthesis of your data, at the end of the day. The final step is actually acting on the insights offered by your SEO dashboard. This could mean acting on some rather unexpected findings and completely changing course or realising your current strategy has been validated by your data.

If a serious change is required then it’s often going to mean getting buy-in from the decision-makers. Try to get this sorted as early as possible so that everyone is on the same page. And don’t be afraid to refer back to the data and the insights drawn from it if you hit any roadblocks with any members of the team. Change sometimes requires a strong head.

Remember, however, that analytics is always an ongoing process. You should be regularly evaluating campaign effectiveness and refining ideas and strategies based on new data. Then you just rinse and repeat. And know that it’s always about the user, in the end.